Friday, February 29, 2008

My New Nickname + Language Mix-Up

Most of my relatives call me either "Cici" (Big Sister) or "Lia", whereas my school and university friends call me "Amel" or "Mel". However, now I have a new nickname ha ha ha ha ha...It's "Ameli" (pronounced like "Amelie" in French).

Who's been calling me "Ameli"? My mother-in-law and my current Finnish teacher he he he...Now why don't you share with me your nicknames, as well, if you want to?

Oh, almost forgot...I used to be called "Cidut" as well (Cici gendut = fat big sister). I got that nickname since I was almost always chubby. I certainly don't like that nickname, but gladly after a while my family stopped calling me that he he he...Well, mostly my naughty brother was the one using that nickname to call me!!!

Speaking of languages, I find that sometimes my brain gets so muddled up that I mix everything up. For example, sometimes when I come home and Arttu says something to me in English, I'd immediately try to think in Finnish (I try to focus as though I'm listening to Finnish). ARRRGGGHHH!!! Of course it makes me unable to understand what he's saying...and then I'd ask him to repeat himself...and I still try to think in Finnish, but then a second later I realize that he wasn't speaking in Finnish (of course not!!!).

And in the classroom, sometimes I forget the English terms and I only remember the Indonesian terms...and thus I have trouble finding the Finnish terms since my dictionary is English-Finnish-English HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...Oh dear...

I talked about this to my female French friend and she has also experienced the same thing! She knows French, English, Spanish, and German. She said that sometimes when she heard some words in Finnish that were similar to Spanish words, she immediately started to think in Spanish and of course it didn't make any sense hi hi hi...

I LOVE the fact that going to a classroom means that I can relate to other students' problems and we can share our problems and more often than not, we'll be able to understand them COMPLETELY 'coz we're in the same boats he he he he...That's another good thing about the course: having your own support group he he he...

Anyway, I'll stop here and blog-hop a bit, then I have to take a nap before the party starts. Have a SWELL weekend, everybody!!!! ;-D

4 comments:

That's a cute story about thinking in Finnish when Arttu is talking to you in English. Learning more than two languages is hard. I studied French for 7years and then struggled with Spanish. When I was in Chile I kept reverting to French by mistake because it comes more naturally to me;-)

Maybe your husband should start speaking to you in Finnish so you can think of the answers in Finnish.

I can't imagine having several languages rolling around in my head. I think I would get so confused, but I know our brains probably have so much capacity for learning that we don't use nearly all of it.

Kathy: Well, I've been practising a bit in replying to him in Finnish, but I don't think right now I'm ready to have our conversation merely in English 'coz it's exhausting enough to be in the course 6 hours a day from Mondays to Fridays. I need to be able to communicate effectively with him in English at the end of the day. Otherwise I'd feel SOOOOO frustrated he he he he...

Maybe after the course is done and I know more vocabulary, then I can try having our conversations mostly in Finnish. We'll see about that, though. I'm planning to do something like that but only on alternate days...but not now he he he...

You're right about the brains...but even our teacher said that she got a headache since she had to think in Finnish, English, Russian, and French, even though she's fluent in Finnish and Russian and semi-fluent in English and French he he he...I guess it's only natural to have a headache after mixing four languages 5 days each week. ;-D